Three of the four semifinalists hail from the host country of the Netherlands, including No. 1 overall seed Alexander Brouwer/Robert Meeuwsen, No. 2 seed Jasper Bouter/Christian Varenhorst and No. 4 Dirk Boehle/Steven van de Velde.

The 2017 SWATCH Beach Volleyball Major Series events were places for teams to shine, all being won by different squads throughout the year. This year proved that any team could step up at any point and take a win.

First up was the Fort Lauderdale Major to kick off the 2017 FIVB World Tour season. Taking the top spot on the men’s side were Alvaro Filho and Saymon Santos over fellow Brazilian’s Evandro Goncalves and Andre Loyola. The women’s side was another all-Brazilian matchup with Larissa Franca and Talita Antunes notching the top spot over Agatha Bednarczuk and Eduarda ‘Duda’ Santos Lisboa.

The second major of the year was in Porec, Croatia where yet another Brazilian men’s duo claimed the prize. Pedro Solberg and Gustavo ‘Guto’ Carvalhaes downed Italian’s Paolo Nicolai and Daniele Lupo. Topping the women’s side of the tournament was Canadian’s Sarah Pavan and Melissa Humana-Paredes over the Czech Republic’s Barbora Hermannova and Marketa Slukova.

The last major of the year, before the World Tour Finals, was in Gstaad, Switzerland. American’s Phil Dalhausser and Nick Lucena stood atop the podium for the men over Poland’s Bartosz Losiak and Piotr Kantor. On the women’s side of the competition, Chantal Laboureur and Julia Sude took the title over Brazil’s Franca/Antunes.

Out of all three competitions, Franca/Antunes were the only pairing to make it to the finals of a Major more than once.

There are still two more tournaments left this World Tour season before the 2018 season kicks up in February.

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About Carly DeMarque

Carly DeMarque has been involved with competitive volleyball for the majority of her life, playing competitively at the club and collegiate level for 15 years and coaching club for five.
Now a retired Division I volleyball athlete out of McNeese State University, she continues her volleyball enthusiasm by stepping back into …